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Recognising and Assessing Dyslexia in your child

Dyslexia can only be properly and fully diagnosed by an Educational Psychologist who can identify the extent of the problem and offer specific advice on remedial work.

However the video below may help you as a parent to identify whether your child may have problems for which you should seek professional help. It is also worthwhile having your childs hearing and sight tested to ensure that difficulties are not being caused by either hearing or sight.

If you feel your child may have Dyslexia, one of the first steps you should consider is to speak with the child's teacher to see if they have also identified problems. With effect from September 2017, the Department of Education and Skills is implementing a new system (the general allocation model) of allocating resources to schools to support children who require additional learning supports. Under this new scheme, students will not be required to have a diagnosis/professional report to access the resources they need. Instead additional teaching supports will be allocated to schools based on their educational profile and the school then uses these supports to suit the needs of their pupils.

If you are concerned about the extent of your child's problems and/or believe that they may qualify for other supports, e.g. exemption from Irish, you may wish to enquire about having an assessment carried out through the Department of Education and Science's Psychological Service, the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) .

Unfortunately, while such free assessments are available, we hear anecdotely that individual schools can only avail of a limited number of assessments for individual children per year so if a school has identified problems with a few children, there may be a considerable waiting period. The Dyslexia Association of Ireland also arranges Educational Psychology Assessments at their national office in Dublin In the event that you have to arrange a private assessment you can expect to pay around €400-€500 however tax relief on the assessment fee of a dependent child is allowable via the MED1 Form. A list of registered psychologists can be obtained from the Psychological Society of Ireland's website. Details of Educational/Psychological Assessment Providers can also be found here. There are also some listed on our learning resources/tutors page on schooldays.ie.

On receiving your child's assessment report, it is important to ask for an explanation of the results of the tests in order to identify the child's strengths/weaknesses. The reports can contain a lot of 'jargon'. Your child's school may be able to assist with understanding the results or you may wish to seek help from the Dyslexia Association of Ireland in interpreting the report.

There are four designated 'reading' schools for students with specific learning disabilities nationwide. The Dyslexia Association of Ireland (DAI) offers out-of-school workshops for students with dyslexia in 28 locations around the country and several branches also run summer schools. For more information, see the DAI website.